Snowden Continues to Impact Cybersecurity

Edward Snowden continues to make waves.  I've seen news articles suggesting that he be granted clemency along with reports of more hardware and software that has been used to illegally gather information.  Thank you New York Times for suggesting the notion that Snowden should be granted leniency for his crime (see the article written on January 1, 2014).  The New York Times Editorial Board states, "Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service."

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I think it's time to back up.  My career started in the 1980's when the world was very different.  Consumers did not have computers in their home.  There was no electronic messaging.  Phone calls were very expensive and overseas calling was something most people didn't do much of -- it was far to expensive for most people.  Over the past thirty years a great deal of power was given to each one of us.  We use social media tools to connect with people all over the world at virtually no cost, news stories spread in minutes and any person with access to the internet can research almost any subject and within seconds get results and many people use Skype to talk to people in other countries at a very low cost.

In the 1980's it was very likely possible to discover information about threats to our government and businesses because the world was smaller.  I don't think that the CIA and other intelligence agencies used the shoe phone I remember Maxwell Smart using in the television program "Get Smart".  Ok, that was a long time ago.  Over the years James Bond demonstrated how he used tools to finish feats that seemed impossible.  His Aston Martin allowed him to defeat the enemy or anyone in the way.  007 had the support of "M" and the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), more commonly known as MI6 (originally Military Intelligence Section 6).

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The world has changed since Maxwell Smart relied on his telephone shoe and James Bond showed us how to really drive a car and remove "obstacles".   We can't rely on shoe phones or cars with special tools to save the world or rid the world of thieves and traitors.  We must rely on sophisticated tools to discover problems so they can be acted upon. 

It's preposterous that the New York Times Editorial Board would even suggest that Edward Snowden be granted an ounce of mercy.  His actions have further divided our frail country.  The New York Times Board states that "The shrill brigade of his critics say Mr. Snowden has done profound damage to intelligence operations of the United States, but none has presented the slightest proof that his disclosures really hurt the nation’s security."  Bull pucky.  Snowden has, in fact, damaged our nation's security and economy.  SC Magazine published an article referring to a German article that states that routers sold by CISCO and Juniper as well as several Dell servers contain NSA backdoors.  I wonder if CISCO, Juniper and Dell will lose market share or suffer economically from the "intelligence" Snowden is making available.

I think Snowden should come back to the United States and face the music.  He can lob grenades at the United States and companies all day long.  I think that it would be irresponsible to say that he has done his country great service.  It is an injustice to all Americans.  Furthermore it does nothing to discourage other individuals who might consider leaving the country illegally with documents and information owned by the United States.